The present invention relates generally to crates and more particularly to a collapsible crate with interlocking members for stacking on another container.
Collapsible crates are well known. Four walls each connected via a hinge to a base are selectively movable about the hinge between a use position, in which the wall is generally perpendicular to the base, and a collapsed position onto the base. Various latch mechanisms have been provided to connect adjacent walls at the corner to selectively lock the crate in the use position.
Some collapsible crates also include retractable supports so that another, non-collapsible, nestable container can be supported thereon. One such collapsible crate includes end walls each having a support that is partially supported on the adjacent walls when in the support position. The nestable containers can be supported on the supports when the supports are in the support position.
The nestable containers are sometimes stacked on larger containers with approximately twice the footprint, such that two such nestable containers are stacked on each larger container. One side wall of each container is supported by pegs adjacent an end wall of the larger container, while corners adjacent the opposite side wall of each container are supported on a platform protruding into the center of the larger container. The platform includes ribs that space the two containers away from one another to keep them in place. However, the collapsible crates have a larger footprint than the nestable containers and therefore do not interact with the pegs adjacent the end walls of the larger containers. Therefore, the collapsible crates cannot be stacked reliably on the larger containers.